Vioxx
News
September 14, 2003 - "Vioxx Effectiveness Questioned"
With
the cost of higher health insurance being a very hot topic in the news,
out of pocket prescription drug costs have also been shown to have greatly
increased. The main problem with the growth of pharmaceuticals is that consumers
and the physicians writing prescriptions are unable to adequately assess which
specific drug is more effective than another one. What often ends up happening
instead, are the expensive, top-selling drugs are prescribed, irrelevant of
how much better the drug works.
Oregon’s state health plan found in 2002
that highly promoted Vioxx worked no better than just over the counter ibuprofen.
The cost difference between Vioxx and ibuprofen however is significantly different,
with ibuprofens costing as little as 10% of the brand name drugs. The
drug companies are paying a lot of money to promote its drugs, though.
Merck spent more in 2000 promoting Vioxx than Pepsi or Budweiser spent,
totaling $160.8 million for its arthritis drug.
For more information on
Vioxx, contact
us to confer with a Vioxx lawyer.
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